Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Female Armed!










I woke up this morning at 2.30 am and could not get to sleep anymore so I thought I would get up and blog before anyone thinks I am MIA in Texas :) as you Do Not Mess With Texas. :) So many of its souvenir T-shirts say this but the people in San Antonio are all very friendly, even the people working in its service industry. So that makes shopping and eating extremely pleasant.

What wasn't so pleasant was my experience in Chicago airport. Airport security was very tight and we had to remove out shoes and stuff as we go through airport security. Our liquids and gels must be in ziploc bags and no item must be more than 90ml. That was okay as I agree that security should be tight in airports.

Of couse I was such an idiot and had worn jeans with metal pieces hanging from the buttons. In no time at all I was asked loudly to stand aside and an officer with a baton showed me where I should go- behind some perplex stands to await inspection. "Female Armed", she barked loudly, twice. Armed with a 2 rings on my button?? Anyway, another officer told me to sit down and said "This is a horse-shoe inspection" and proceeded very efficently to frisk me and wave her magic wand all over my pants and back and sides. My friends were all very amused but no one else showed any interest as they were busy taking off their shoes, jackets, hand phones, hats, boots and switching on their lap tops for the officers. Wahhh!

So on my journey back, I made sure that I had no metal thingees on me and the only thing in my zip loc was my moisturiser, my cleanser and toothbrush and paste. Then it was a breeze!

The 15-hour ride from Chicago to HongKong was excruciatingly difficult for me as I had only been on short rides when I go away- 6 hours at most from Singapore to Nepal. Several times during the trip I wanted to stand up and yell for the pilot to let me out! Arghhh! So I sometimes switch on my phone to see the pics of the amigos. :) That cheered me up quite abit.

When we finally hit Changi Airport after an hour transit in HongKong and a 3.5 hour flight, I was so grateful I could cry. I now understand why some people say thay feel like kissing the ground of their homes after a long flight. No. I didn't kiss the ground as I wanted to hurry to get out of imigration, to get my bags and go home.

It was a great plus that the amigos recognised me and greeted me nicely. I had to play with everyone before I went to bed. :) The next morning I had to get up and go to work. The good thing was Bujang did not meow loudly but stayed quietly by me for his usual morning treat before I went out the door. :)

5 comments:

  1. Welcome home! Glad to hear that everyone is well. Hope you get over the jetlag soon.

    I hate long flights too. That why the further place I had ever been is Great Barrier Reef.

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  2. Glad to hear you and the kitties are well :)
    Purrrrrrrrs,
    Sanjee, Boni, Mini, Pepi and Gree

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  3. Thanks you guys at hot(m)bc. I am really glad to be back :)

    Yup Mary. I have been to Nepal twice and its an amazing country. You can't help but feel the spirituality of the place even in such a busy area as Kathmandu. I think I will go back there some day.

    Thanks cat-aunty. How many hours to the Barrier Reef? I think the next time someone asks me to fly to some place, I would do well to ask the hours that I would have to endure.

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  4. Dear San, I think it is 9 hours away, stop over at Darwin.

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  5. We're close enough to Chicago that we have to fly through there or Minneapolis on every trip. We chose Minneapolis whenever possible because Chicago is awful. We followed the arrows to get to our bus once, until they told us to go down an "up" escalator. We missed the last bus home and had to find a hotel. UGH! Cats know better than people; stay home! Don't travel! :-)

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